Scoreboard: Linkin Park, One Love Manchester

This week’s Scoreboard features Linkin Park’s new album and spotlights Ariana Grande and One Love Manchester

Billboard Artist Top 10

For the magazine dated June 10, 2017

See the full chart at http://www.billboard.com/charts/artist-100

This week marks the 14th different #1 album on the Billboard 200 this year, a new release from Linkin Park One More Light. The California rock veterans also take #1 on the Artist 100, and on the Hot 100 Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee, and Justin Bieber notch their third week at #1 with “Despacito (Remix).”

Country’s Rascal Flatts have the week’s second biggest new album, Back To Us

Linkin Park Go Light

The new Linkin Park album is the band’s seventh and perhaps least rocking. The band’s heyday as one of alternative rock’s biggest groups took place in the early and mid 2000’s. However, this decade, @linkinpark has only reached the top 40 of the Hot 100 twice. 2010’s “The Catalyst” overlaid synthesizers over the band’s guitars. 2012’s “Burn It Down” turned up the guitars as the band took its sound towards EDM. The 2014 album The Hunting Party went back to the band’s rock’s roots but despite the favorable reviews, none of its singles made the Hot 100. This year’s One More Light is a pivot. The Hunting Party rock sound is abandoned for EDM, hip-hop, and, yes, pop. Lead single “Heavy” ft. Kiiara not only brings a female vocalist (does @linkinpark want to be The Chainsmokers?), but also slows the Linkin pace down enough to make the single eligible for lite FM radio. Perhaps @linkinpark is influenced by the softer version of rock-hip-hop that made Twenty One Pilots America’s biggest band last year. It may be working, “Heavy” sits at its peak of #50 of the Hot 100 this week and may soon become the band’s third top 40 hit on the Hot 100 this decade.

Linkin Park put the West Coast sunset light on their album cover

On Ariana Grande and Manchester

The May 22 suicide bombing at the Manchester Arena in Britain killed 23 and injured 119. For Europe, such terrorist incidents have become more common in recent years, but this tragedy was amplified in particular due to its circumstances – right outside the arena, right after a sold out Ariana Grande concert. Grande, Billboard’s #7 artist of 2016, had been on the European leg of her Dangerous Woman Tour, and the show was sold out, over 14,000 fans attended. Fatalities included both concert goers and parents waiting on their children outside the arena; the youngest victim killed was an eight-year old girl. The setting of the attack outside a pop concert mobilized artists worldwide. Grande paused her tour and released a defiant statement on Instagram including a line “we will not quit or operate in fear.”

Grande’s full statement from May 26

The tragedy put Grande in a greater spotlight than her pop successes. Ari announced  a #onelovemanchester benefit concert and visited multiple families and victims of the attack at Manchester hospitals a few days before the concert took place. #onelovemanchester on June 4th included not only Ari but also the music world’s biggest stars including Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Coldplay, Pharrell, Justin Bieber, and others. With the continuation of terrorist attacks worldwide, the concert demonstrated music’s healing powers and framed @arianagrande as the voice for the world’s youth, especially young girls and women. You can watch the full concert below, which serves as a great reminder that music transcends keeping score and unites people worldwide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9yak899MUs